Friday, April 2, 2010

Love Is in the Air

The goats were successfully dropped off for their month long lovefest. Well it's really Lucy's romantic getaway. Ethel is with the young does, showing off her impressive relative size, while Lucy is frolicking with the buck and nursing does. Fortunately, they are only separated by a chain link fence as they are very attached to one another. As they stood nose to nose at the fence line, I felt quite sorry for them; it's the first time they've been apart in eight months.

We had a wonderful time visiting the birth home of our girls, especially with all the one and two week dwarf goat babies running around. I can't wait until we have our own kiddies frisking about. However, the thought of having to inevitably give them away is already weighing heavy on me. Some people collect Hummels, stamps, comic books and whatnot; I collect pets. I know, I know, we're overrun with animals here, especially with the rats and everything. But seriously, how am I going to give up these 15 inch long, not more than 10 inch high, cubes of cuteness? Look!

In the right hand corner of this pic, you can see a blurry image of the stud who is going "to service" Lucy. He's quite a looker. I think they will have totally adorable babies. He might actually be Lucy's dad. Don't say "Ewww!" It's not like that with goats. I think...

I mentioned to Mary Jane, the queen of goats at Oops Ranch, that I thought Lucy was in heat a couple weeks ago so didn't know when she would come back around again. Mary Jane told me that it was common for a doe to quickly go back into estrus once she caught whiff of a buck. We took a little tour to see all the animals, mostly miniatures, that they breed and raise on the farm and when we returned to give our ladies one last goodbye (Ute teared up as if this were a final farewell, poor baby), I noticed that Lucy was showing signs that she was... well... um... ready. That didn't take long! 15 minutes of male goat stink and Lucy was in the mood for love. Look closely at her backside.

Before we left, I saw that the buck himself was noticing Lucy's odor as it blew downwind in his general direction. I suspect this will be a successful arrangement, though I am anxious for the girls to return. I miss their silly mugs.

4 comments:

"Animal collectors" is a good, descriptive term. We are also animal collectors but try really hard to keep it in check. Our current problem lies with chickens. Do we really need 11 chickens for the two of us? No, of course not. We are now getting 8-10 eggs a day. Good thing we have neighbors, friends and coworkers that like eggs.

In the next couple of months we'll be sending our own does out for breeding. I'm not looking forward to having to give away the kids.